You dont want to be a deadend VRS Librarians on Collaboration amp SQA iConference 15 February 2013 httpwwwoclcorgresearchactivitiessynergyhtml Chirag Shah Assistant Professor ID: 767590
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“You don’t want to be a dead-end” VRS Librarians on Collaboration & SQA iConference 15 February 2013http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/synergy.html Chirag Shah Assistant ProfessorRutgers University chirags@oclc.org Marie L. Radford Associate ProfessorRutgers Universitymradford@rutgers.edu Lynn Silipigni Connaway Senior Research Scientist OCLC connawal@oclc.org
Cyber Synergy: Seeking Sustainability through Collaboration between Virtual Reference & Social Q&A Sites Possible collaboration with SQA community Evidence to model new library collaborative servicesSustainability vital Three phasesTranscript analysis1000 Yahoo Answers Q&A pairs 500+ QuestionPoint chat/Qwidget transcripts150 Telephone interviews & analysisConstruct design specifications
Librarian Interviews – Preliminary Results 50 Total interviews - VRS librarians25 Interviews analyzed for preliminary resultsPhone interviews 8/12 - 9/12 Responses analyzed 10/12 - 11/12 Analysis - constant comparative method & Critical Incident TechniqueThemesDifficult reference encounters CollaborationSocial Question & Answer (SQA)VRS and SQA compared
Difficult reference encounters WITHIN librarian’s expertise Librarian usually able to answer (only 4 referrals) Answering question convenient due to librarian’s subject knowledge or familiarity with technological resourcesUser seemed satisfied Librarian able to instruct & connect with user
Difficult reference encounters OUTSIDE librarian’s expertise Librarian usually ended up referring user Difficulties were due to: - Librarian or user’s lack of subject knowledge - Unfamiliarity with technological resources - Lack of time to answer question
Collaboration Results DemographicsFrequency hard to track - some more VRS than othersMost collaborated more than once a week Modes of collaboration: e-mail, FtF, chat, phone Collaboration themes FtF most often reported, then e-mail, then chatReasons for collaborationMore comprehensive answerLacks expertiseLacks time Sometimes followed up (8 of 25)
Collaboration (cont.) Reasons to collaborateLibrarian: lacks expertise, not local librarian, referral seen as option or easy/convenient User: needs more information, has sufficient time Facilitators & barriersSeen on individual or organizational levelFacilitators: willingness to help, know who to contact, other librarians available Barriers: unwillingness to collaborate, insufficient time, do not know who to contact
Crowd-sourcing? Consulting experts acceptable if: Expert is authoritative Question requires objective answer Convenient Question type suitable for SQA?Ready ref., experience or opinion based, starting point for in-depth research VRS is _______ and SQA is not (comparison)AuthoritativeComplexObjectiveSynchronous
Next Steps
Next Steps Continue interviewsVRS librarians VRS/SQA usersFurther analysis SQA questionsSubject Question TypeQuestions failing to obtain answersDesign sessions with expertsSpecifications for system design ANSWERS(0)Answer QuestionNee help with English please?
Questions?Marie L. Radford: mradford@rutgers.eduLynn Silipigni Connaway: connawal@oclc.orgChirag Shah: chirags@rutgers.edu ? ? ? ?????